Recaps

Shen Le watched his junior sisters test a careful method for separating and cleaning fragile Gold Foil, then learned that his junior disciples had identified the gold adhesive lacquer’s ingredients. He left with a clearer restoration process and the daunting prospect of handling most of the Buddha statue’s Gold Foil himself.

• Shen Le watched a junior sister flatten brittle Gold Foil with a Steam Iron and carefully separate its layers with restoration tools.
• The junior sister cleaned the sheets with a Cotton Swab dipped in 20% Ethanol and 80% purified water, then pressed them flat between glass plates for drying.
• Shen Le realized that he would probably need to remove, clean, and reapply most of the Buddha statue’s Gold Foil himself to preserve its spirituality.
• A junior disciple reported that the gold adhesive lacquer was made primarily from raw lacquer mixed with tung oil and mercury sulfide.
• Shen Le offered to reimburse the research paper’s publication fees, but the junior disciple asked instead for some of the delicious fruits Shen Le had shared before.

Shen Le tried to remove Alloy Master's aura from separated gold foil without stripping away its own spiritual energy, refining his Cleansing Spell with talismans until he succeeded. Exhausted by the delicate work, he left Alloy Master eager to help separate the foil.

• Alloy Master used his power to separate the gold foil into thin sheets, but Shen Le refused to let him handle the task because his aura could affect the foil's spiritual growth.
• Alloy Master stayed in the Studio while Shen Le attempted to remove his aura with a Cleansing Spell, which also stripped away the foil's own spiritual energy.
• Shen Le added perception and fine-control talismans and successfully removed Alloy Master's aura, but the effort exhausted his mental power.
• Alloy Master excitedly offered to separate the gold foil while Shen Le handled the delicate cleansing.

Shen Le practiced using the Cleansing Spell to remove alien aura and gold lacquer from the Gold Foil, while Alloy Master tried to learn the spell from Lan Zhuang. After Shen Le began treating the Buddha Statue’s damaged stone, the statue sent him an unexpected wave of communication.

• Shen Le practiced the Cleansing Spell, and Lan Zhuang projected an exact copy of its Talisman for Alloy Master to study.
• Alloy Master spent half a day tracing the Talisman, then struggled to draw it correctly while Shen Le advised him to keep practicing.
• Over several days, Shen Le learned to cleanse more Gold Foil at once, then used the spell to remove the gold lacquer from all of it.
• Shen Le began restoring the Buddha Statue by laying water-soaked paper over its exposed stone to draw out the salts.
• As Shen Le wondered how to repair the crumbling stone, the Buddha Statue sent an invisible wave around him.

Shen Le witnessed the women of a besieged city supporting the front lines under the leadership of the Marshal’s wife. When the King of Han’s forces reached the walls, she refused to flee and rallied the city’s people to defend it, promising them gold and silver.

• Shen Le watched the Marshal’s wife organize women to make bandages and supplies while she comforted Gang'er and treated his concubine kindly.
• A maid announced that the King of Han’s men had reached the city walls and that the Grand Commander had ordered the women to prepare to evacuate by ship.
• The Marshal’s wife refused to leave, arguing that fleeing would break the city’s resolve, and ordered everyone to put on whatever armor they had.
• The Marshal’s wife led the women, elderly people, and youths toward the city walls, while the concubine followed protectively with Gang'er.
• The Marshal’s wife showed the soldiers a chest of gold and silver and promised to distribute it if they held through the battle.

Shen Le witnessed the life of a prince who was raised by his devoted stepmother and later left to govern the Jin Region. After she died, the prince struggled to remember her face, then honored her by commissioning a Guanyin statue in her likeness.

• The plain-clothed woman rallied the people to defend the city until her husband returned with reinforcements.
• Shen Le watched the prince grow up devoted to his Mother Empress, who raised and taught him despite his birth mother being alive.
• At twenty, the prince left for the Jin Region and promised to send his Mother Empress fine furs, but never saw her again.
• Four years later, after his Mother Empress died, the prince tried to paint her likeness and broke down when he realized he had forgotten her face.
• The prince asked his imperial father for a portrait to guide the craftsmen, and eight years later he prayed before a Guanyin statue made in her likeness.

Shen Le learned the Thousand-Hand Guanyin’s history, from being cherished by a prince to being stripped of her Gold Foil while his eldest son was imprisoned. He began testing a sandstone consolidant on the estate’s stonework, hoping it would preserve spiritual energy and spare him from seeking help from Lady Shiji.

• Shen Le witnessed the Guanyin’s history: a prince worshipped her, then his imprisoned eldest son’s family stripped her Gold Foil to buy food.
• Shen Le decided to test ZB-WB-S on spiritual sandstone and asked Old You to obtain movable sandstone relics from Shanxi and bring the material back.
• Shen Le carefully used the Cleansing Spell to remove grime and deteriorated plaster from the Guanyin, while Alloy Master admitted he could not control or repair stone.
• Alloy Master offered to introduce Shen Le to Lady Shiji, a bluestone demon, and Shen Le declined for the time being.
• After the materials arrived, Shen Le began repairing the estate’s paving stones, column bases, and foundations with ZB-WB-S mixed with stone-powder mortar.

Shen Le failed to make the repaired stonework’s aura flow naturally and agreed to seek Lady Shiji’s help. As he and Alloy Master prepared to travel to Jin Region, the little ones demanded to come along, leaving Shen Le to work out how to transport them.

• Shen Le tested ways to guide aura through the mansion’s patched stonework, but the repairs remained weaker and less fluid than the original stone.
• Old You delivered Buddha statues, stone lanterns, and stone lions whose stronger auras flowed better through repaired sections, though they still did not fully merge.
• After his senior martial brother dismissed his idea of filling stone seams with magma, Shen Le asked Alloy Master to contact Lady Shiji, who agreed to meet them.
• Shen Le and Alloy Master arranged to rent a six-seater SUV and hire a driver because neither of them could drive, while Alloy Master also admitted he was afraid of flying.
• Little Oil Lamp, Little Puppet, Little Ink Marker, Lan Zhuang, Red Wedding Dress, and Scroll all wanted to travel, so Shen Le began considering their luggage and travel restrictions.

Shen Le and Alloy Master set off for the Jin Region with their supernatural companions and a Special Affairs Bureau driver. During the journey, Peregrine Falcon arrived with news that Lady Shiji would meet Shen Le and help, but wanted to discuss a request first.

• The Little Puppet, Little Ink Marker, Red Wedding Dress, and other companions prepared for the trip, while Shen Le arranged their transport and permits.
• Shen Le and Alloy Master departed in a military-grade Dongfeng Warrior driven by Guo Huai, a Special Affairs Bureau hire.
• Guo Huai drove them through the Jin Region and described local attractions as Shen Le rested and took photos.
• Peregrine Falcon flew into the vehicle and told Shen Le that Lady Shiji had agreed to meet and help him, provided they discussed her request.

Shen Le learned that Lady Shiji wanted him to find and save her stone friend, whose faint aura had disappeared over the past century. He traveled with his companions to Wild Goose Pass and followed Old You into the mountains, where Alloy Master carried the exhausted Xiao Guo.

• Shen Le heard that Lady Shiji wanted him to find a friend, and Old You explained that the friend was a stone carved into a statue whose weakening aura had vanished.
• Shen Le drove north with his companions to the Wild Goose Pass scenic area, where he sensed the battlefield history surrounding the pass.
• Shen Le packed the little ones into his hiking backpack and asked Old You to lead them toward Lady Shiji's location two peaks away.
• Shen Le hurried through the mountain forest using the Five Animal Frolics while Xiao Guo struggled to keep up.
• Alloy Master transformed, grabbed the exhausted Xiao Guo, and carried him on his back.

Shen Le met Lady Shiji to ask for help repairing a stone statue, but Qing Deng frightened her into rolling down the mountainside. Lady Shiji agreed to help if Shen Le found her missing other half, though locating it would be difficult because she could not describe distances and could still sense Qing Deng from far away.

• Shen Le and his companions greeted Lady Shiji, but she stayed still until Qing Deng approached and then rolled down the slope in fright.
• Old You spoke with Lady Shiji, who agreed to talk with Shen Le if Qing Deng stayed at least one kilometer away.
• Shen Le sent Qing Deng back toward the car and found Lady Shiji in the ravine, where she asked him to find her missing friend in exchange for helping repair the statue.
• Lady Shiji recounted how she and her other half had supported defenders at Wild Goose Pass until the other stone was taken away and carved into a Buddha statue.
• Shen Le tried to learn where the statue had been taken, but Lady Shiji could not judge human distances and could still sense Qing Deng from far away.

Shen Le helped Lady Shiji demonstrate her ability to restore damaged stones, then used the Copper Fragment to shrink her into a jade small enough to carry. Lady Shiji asked him to take her over the hill toward a place with more people so she could search for her friend.

• Old You searched the hills around Lady Shiji's resting place but found no trace of the stone Buddha or temple.
• Alloy Master carried Lady Shiji up the slope, but his weight made the ground crumble, so Shen Le offered to help her shrink.
• Shen Le gave Lady Shiji power, and she shrank partway before expanding back to her original size when his power ran short.
• Lady Shiji repaired a broken stone and reshaped stone dust into a lotus, proving she could restore stone objects without leaving an aura behind.
• Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to transform Lady Shiji into a goose-egg-sized piece of jade.
• Lady Shiji recovered from the transformation and asked Shen Le to carry her toward where more people lived.

Shen Le and his companions searched for the missing half of Lady Shiji’s stone Buddha, tracing its faint spiritual resonance to a village graveyard. They found it had become part of a martyr’s grave, where Lady Shiji recognized it despite its changed state.

• Shen Le searched the mountains with Lady Shiji until Xiao Guo persuaded him to stop for the night.
• Shen Le and his companions found the Buddha statue’s lower half in a ravine, where Lady Shiji sensed that its spirituality had faded.
• Xiao Guo concluded that an artillery shell had blown the statue apart, and Shen Le used the surviving spiritual resonance to locate the missing half.
• Scroll marked a route to the missing piece, and Xiao Guo drove the group to a remote village.
• Shen Le followed the resonance to a clean, well-kept grave in the village graveyard, and Lady Shiji recognized the missing statue at a martyr’s tomb.

Shen Le brought Lady Shiji to a martyr’s grave, where she sensed a new life growing in the gravestone, but chose to leave it in peace. Back in Zhuxi Town, Lady Shiji repaired the Buddha statue’s stone core, and Shen Le began preparing it for gilding while deciding among designs for its missing parts.

• Shen Le offered food and water at the martyr’s grave, and Lady Shiji decided to leave the weak sentience there rather than take it away.
• Xiao Guo alerted local Special Affairs Bureau personnel to the unusual gravestone, and Shen Le took the little ones sightseeing around Yanmen Pass and nearby landmarks.
• Shen Le brought Lady Shiji to the Buddha statue, where she repaired its damaged stone core and unexpectedly began forming a jade head before he stopped her.
• Shen Le asked Lady Shiji to stay at his home while he continued the restoration, then collected five Buddha head-and-hand designs from his junior martial brothers and sisters.
• Shen Le began applying layers of lacquer as a ground layer for the Buddha statue’s gold adhesive lacquer and Gold Foil.

Shen Le struggled to sand the Buddha statue’s intricate lacquered surface until the Buddhist Shrine’s strands of hair offered to help. After sensing that the Shrine’s will was peaceful toward the statue, he taught the strands how to polish it and let them continue the work.

• Shen Le spent a day sanding the Buddha statue by hand and realized he had finished only two of its many hands.
• The Little Puppets, Little Ink Marker, and Little Oil Lamp offered to help, but Shen Le insisted on handling the delicate sanding himself.
• Strands of hair from the Buddhist Shrine wrapped around Shen Le’s calf and asked to help polish the statue.
• Shen Le sensed that the Buddhist Shrine’s will held no hostility toward the Buddha statue and grew calmer whenever it focused on it.
• Shen Le demonstrated how to use lacquer ash, and the strands of hair began smoothing the Buddha statue’s lacquer while he warned them not to damage themselves.

Shen Le used countless black strands to finish polishing the Buddha statue in one day, then arranged for handmade gold foil needed for its restoration. When Alloy Master offered to make the foil himself, his first attempt fell short, and he stubbornly kept hammering at the gold.

• Shen Le directed the black strands as they polished the Buddha statue, inspected their work, and replenished themselves in Silk Fibroin Solution.
• Shen Le reassured Little Puppet and Little Oil Lamp that he would give them more attention and help them with their needs.
• Shen Le asked Old You to check on the handmade gold foil order, but learned it would not arrive for ten days and requested an earlier delivery.
• Alloy Master offered to make gold foil from a gold bar, but his hammering produced a sheet far smaller and less uniform than the required standard.
• Alloy Master refused to accept that his metal-controlling ability was inferior to a human's and spent days hammering the gold in his courtyard.

Alloy Master finished hammering gold foil that surpassed professional standards and chose gold foil as payment so he could wrap it around metal snacks. Shen Le began restoring the Buddha statue with reclaimed gold adhesive lacquer, and Lan Zhuang mapped the statue to help fit the fragments back into place.

• Shen Le soothed Ah Lu about Alloy Master's noisy hammering and checked on Alloy Master's work.
• Alloy Master proudly showed Shen Le the exceptionally thin, wide gold foil he had hammered, and Shen Le confirmed its quality with instruments.
• Alloy Master chose gold foil as payment and said he wanted to wrap it around silver bars and alloy steel for snacks.
• Shen Le steamed and softened reclaimed gold adhesive lacquer from the Buddha statue instead of preparing new lacquer.
• Xiao Ling and Qing Deng offered to help Shen Le, while Lan Zhuang projected a color-coded grid matching the lacquer fragments to the statue.

Shen Le struggled to restore the Buddha statue's gold foil until Alloy Master suggested asking the Artifact Spirit and Buddhist Shrine for guidance. The black hair restored the statue according to the devotees' wishes, and Shen Le accepted the dazzling result because the statue seemed content.

• Shen Le asked Alloy Master to work out how to blend old and new gold foil, then continued repairing the Buddha statue while warning Qing Deng, Zheng Mo, and Myriad Strands of Black Hair to stay clear of his materials.
• Shen Le painstakingly reattached the old foil and prepared to fill the remaining gaps, but he hesitated over how to balance a harmonious appearance with preserving the statue's history.
• Alloy Master suggested that Shen Le ask the Buddha statue what it preferred, but the statue seemed indifferent to the repair choices.
• Shen Le reached out to the Buddhist Shrine, and Myriad Strands of Black Hair showed him visions of women donating gold foil and praying before the statue.
• Shen Le empowered the Buddhist Shrine, and Myriad Strands of Black Hair covered the Buddha statue's hand in gold foil while its aura and the statue's aura grew livelier.
• Shen Le sensed that the Buddha statue was pleased with the gilded hand and accepted the result despite imagining scholars criticizing it as excessive.

Shen Le used the Buddha statue, the Compass, and the Scroll to search for its missing head and arms, but his scans found no trace of them. After exhausting himself with long-range searches, he considered improving the method or traveling abroad.

• Shen Le finished gilding the Buddha statue and learned that the original owner had no clues about its missing head and arms.
• Shen Le used the Buddha statue and the copper fragment map to scan outward from Binhai City, but received no response.
• Shen Le enlisted the Compass to guide directional scans and concentrated the Buddha statue’s power westward beyond the map’s range.
• Shen Le performed more than ten scans, drained his mental power, and collapsed before recovering with spiritual fruits and sleep.
• Shen Le studied the scanning problem on a virtual globe and considered changing the waves’ path or going abroad.

Shen Le restored the Buddha Statue’s flaking paint and missing colors with Lady Shiji’s help, hoping to prepare it for a renewed search for its missing parts. When he touched its overlapping hands, the statue drew him into a vision of the past.

• After his search waves produced only a faint response to the west, Shen Le decided to repair the Buddha Statue before searching further.
• Shen Le asked Lady Shiji to press the statue’s lifted and blistered mineral pigments back into place.
• Shen Le used the Cleansing Spell to remove grime without damaging the statue’s paint.
• Using his apprentices’ pigment analysis and 3D reconstruction, Shen Le repainted the statue’s missing colors layer by layer and sealed them with glue and alum.
• After cleaning away the traces of Lady Shiji’s presence, Shen Le touched the statue’s hands and was pulled into the past.

Shen Le was carried with the Prince of Jin’s household women from their family temple to Nanjing as the dynasty collapsed, where poverty forced the nuns to sell their sacred possessions. The chapter ended with the restored Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Guanyin sold to the owner of Flower-Washing Tower.

• Shen Le learned that the Rebel King’s forces threatened the Prince of Qin and followed the family temple’s women as they were evacuated to Nanjing.
• The nuns struggled to survive without support from the Prince of Jin’s residence and began selling temple goods after the abbess reluctantly agreed.
• The capital fell to the rebels, and the officials in the secondary capital enthroned a new emperor while the Jin household women were left without protection.
• The nuns sold more of the convent’s belongings to support themselves, eventually agreeing to sell Shen Le’s restored Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Guanyin to the owner of Flower-Washing Tower.

Shen Le witnessed the Buddha statue’s history along the Qinhuai River, where a young courtesan mourned the fallen realm and later became a nun after the war destroyed her former life. The convent grew into a refuge and memorial for women of the pleasure quarters, while generations of them gilded the statue and found sanctuary beneath its gaze.

• Shen Le watched the Buddha statue arrive at a lavish Qinhuai River pleasure house and saw courtesan sisters entertain guests while the Chongzhen Emperor’s fall and the Capital City’s capture went unheeded.
• A young woman prayed before the statue and lamented that officials, generals, and scholars feasted instead of fighting to restore the realm; her mother said registered courtesans had no way to escape their lives.
• War ruined the Qinhuai River’s splendor, and the Buddha statue was stripped of its Gold Foil and abandoned in a remote nunnery.
• The young woman fled to the nunnery, cut her hair, became a nun, and learned that her mother had been killed by rebel soldiers.
• Sister Gu supported the nun and helped repair the convent, where other former courtesans joined her and enshrined memorial tablets for women who had died or disappeared.
• Aged courtesans sought refuge in the convent, while younger singing girls donated gold and silk to gild the Buddha statue, establishing it as a sanctuary across generations.

Shen Le restored garments from the old residence while memories and a newly upgraded skill overwhelmed him, triggering a household-wide panic and a medical examination. After recovering, he realized he might now be able to repair the Yao Zither girl.

• Shen Le cleaned and reinforced several historical garments, though he could not remove the dye bleeding from a pomegranate-red embroidered skirt.
• Shen Le collapsed with a severe headache, alarming the Studio’s little ones, Gu Yulin, and Alloy Master.
• Dr. Qin examined Shen Le and found no immediate danger, while Shen Le endured memories and muscle movements as the Copper Fragment transferred an upgraded skill.
• Shen Le recovered and told Dr. Qin he might now be able to repair the Yao Zither girl.

Shen Le discovered that the memories flooding into him had given him extensive musical and artistic skills, prompting Dr. Qin to ask him to play Miss Yaoyao’s qin. After the performance drew an uneasy response from Miss Yaoyao, Shen Le returned to restoring artifacts and cleaned the silver jewelry, but he was left unsure how to repair a damaged flute and xiao.

• Dr. Qin was astonished when Shen Le demonstrated his newly acquired zither skills and brought him the Yao Zither to play for Miss Yaoyao.
• Dr. Qin sent Miss Yaoyao a video of Shen Le playing, and she described his style as having an air of classical decadence, making Dr. Qin abandon the qin and rush away with his phone.
• Alloy Master asked Shen Le to transfer professional memories into him, but Shen Le gave vague replies and escaped back to the Studio.
• Shen Le cleaned and polished the oxidized silver hairpins, flat hairpins, and bracelets, then placed them in a Storage Box for later protective treatment.
• Shen Le examined the remaining artifacts and wondered how to repair the damaged Xiangfei bamboo flute and bamboo xiao.

Shen Le tried several ways to repair a cracked bamboo flute, but glue altered its sound and Ah Lu's repair left the bamboo fibers uneven. He used healing magic and nutrients to regrow the bamboo, only for it to sprout excessively and ruin the flute's tone, leaving him to consider improving his spell precision.

• Shen Le repaired a cracked bamboo flute with 502 glue and bamboo powder, but its pitch and spiritual-essence flow were impaired.
• Shen Le tried Fish Glue and found that it improved the spiritual-essence flow but did not restore the flute's pitch.
• Shen Le asked Ah Lu to regrow the bamboo fibers, and Ah Lu closed the crack, though the flute still sounded subtly wrong.
• Myriad Strands of Black Hair reapplied the flute membrane, and Shen Le examined the repaired crack and found its bamboo fibers disordered.
• Shen Le sprayed nutrient solution into the crack and cast a healing spell, causing the bamboo to overgrow; he trimmed it, but its tone changed drastically.

Shen Le struggled to control his Healing Spell, accidentally grew a bamboo grove in his courtyard, and learned how to repair bamboo instruments without making them grow. After restoring the last instruments in the Buddhist Shrine, he triggered the Buddha Statue’s awakening.

• Shen Le practiced his Healing Spell on bamboo strips and furniture, but his attempts repeatedly made the bamboo grow uncontrollably.
• Shen Le woke to find a bamboo grove filling his courtyard, where the discarded strips had rooted and grown overnight.
• Xiao Yu and the proprietress removed the bamboo, and the proprietress took the spiritually awakened plants away to transplant them; Shen Le received bamboo-shoot dishes in return.
• Alloy Master showed Shen Le that metal energy could stop bamboo growth, and Shen Le found ways to control his own spells well enough to heal bamboo without extending it.
• Shen Le repaired his bamboo flutes and xiao, then set down the restored bamboo xiao and awakened the Buddha Statue, whose power surged to epic levels.